Problem Identification:

According to RAINN.org (2017), “every 98 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. When broken down one in 4 girls and one in six boys before the age of 18 will experience some form of sexual abuse. One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college.” (National Sexual Violence Resource Center,  2015). “Sexual assault is underreported, with only 63% of cases reported to authorities and just 12% of child sexual abuse cases.”(NSVRC, 2015) How the female psyche responds to sexual assault and boundary violations is different than males.

Clinical decision-making:

Following sexual assault it is expected that the subject will experience trauma-related symptoms. “In fact, up to 94% of women who are raped have experience post-traumatic stress disorder.” (Barbash, E. 2017) Up to “70% of sexual assault survivors experience moderate to severe distress, larger than any other violent crime according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015.” Females who experience sexual assault and/or violence may have a predisposition to self-harm vs. harming others.

Self-harm can range in addictive, high-risk or other harmful behaviors. Following the experience of trauma theremay be underlying neurobiological mechanisms at play which can lead to disordered eating. Disordered eating may include binge eating, food addictions, Hedonic eating, bulimia and anorexia nervosa.

In this research we introduce how trauma-related events when treated with healthy & empowering interventions can improve recovery and lead to better health outcomes. Trauma when treated with positive psychology principles may improve mind health & ego development in humans when addressed appropriately within a framework of creating post-traumatic growth. The research has been done over 13 years including a Master’s in leadership Studies reviewing the most developed brain systems cognitively, emotionally & morally for social progress & human flourishing. We have evaluated historical practices from the Vedic Sciences, psychiatry,nutritional sciences to develop a model for improving health economic and patient-reported outcomes following sexual assault. The model includes mindful eating, mindfulness meditation and food as medicine for grounding the subject after trauma. These techniques may promote better health outcomes for the nervous system reducing subject related reactions to memories.

Stress arousal has an impact on arousing the sympathetic nervous system response. Other interventions including certain nutritious foods can disengage stress arousal stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system response for grounding and calming the survivor. We discuss the role sympathetic nervous system response has in producing “fight, flight or freeze” responses upon arousal. We further elaborate on historical practices from the Vedic sciences, nutrition and the role they can play with mind-body medicine at accelerating recovery.